Local elected officials are weighing the pros and cons of three potential uses of the CRANDIC rail line, a freight line that connects Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

For years, there has been discussion among various government entities about the feasibility of converting the line to be a mode of public transportation for Corridor residents. Most recently, three options were discussed at the Nov. 19 Iowa City City Council work session.

According to its website, the CRANDIC rail was used to carry passengers in electric train cars in the early 1900s. However, as cars became more popular, the rail’s ridership greatly decreased, and it eventually ceased operations as a passenger rail in 1953. 

Kent Ralston, executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, presented the three options to the city council, which include converting the line to a passenger rail, repurposing the line to accommodate public buses, and entering into a lease agreement for a temporary passenger rail.

The first option came from a three-part study from 2015 to 2020, Ralston said. This study examined a nine-mile stretch from Burlington Street in Iowa City to North Liberty’s Penn Street.

In theory, this option would feature seven different stops along the nine miles, taking 25 minutes to travel one end from the other. The train would run from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and is estimated to have a daily ridership of 5,300 passengers. In comparison, Iowa City buses carry around 4,500 riders each day, Ralston said.

The capital cost, or the one-time cost to operate the rail, would be $60 million. Each year, it would cost nearly $6 million in operating costs.

The second option discussed was getting rid of the rail to instead operate a bus from Iowa City’s Clinton Street to Penn Street in North Liberty. This option, known as the Bus Rapid Transit, completed its study a few months ago, Ralston said.

The bus would feature 18 stops and would take just under half an hour to travel end-to-end. The bus would operate from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day, with reduced service on the weekends. The estimated ridership for this option is 4,300 per day on weekdays. 

The capital cost for this project is the most expensive of the three options at $87.4 million. The yearly operating cost is estimated to be $2.4 million. This option also features some bureaucratic difficulties because there are certain rules and regulations that have to be followed when removing rails from a line, Ralston said.

Finally, the third option includes a lease agreement with Pop-Up Metro for a passenger rail from Burlington Street in Iowa City to Penn Street in North Liberty. Pop-Up Metro is a North American transit company that utilizes low-density freight rail lines and battery-operated passenger trains. 

The lease agreement would be three years with the opportunity to renew the lease or sell the battery-operated cars once the lease is up, depending on what the community would like to do, Cady Gerlach, senior director of community development for Greater Iowa City, Inc., said at the meeting.

This option would feature six stops, taking half an hour to run end-to-end. The train would run on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

The capital cost of the Pop-Up Metro is approximately $5.7 million, and the yearly operating cost is $3.7 million.

What do elected officials think?

A handful of elected officials are united behind the Pop-Up Metro option because of its flexibility and lower cost.

In an interview with The Daily Iowan, Laura Bergus, an Iowa City city councilor, said the Pop-Up Metro option is more flexible because the platforms for each stop can be moved somewhat easily. The lower cost also seems more justifiable, and the live study element would help elected officials see how successful the train is in real-time, she said.

“I really like the idea of a solution that would enable us to move people up and down the Corridor before we invest tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that we can get it operationally correct,” Bergus said.

Coralville Mayor Meghann Foster felt similarly things about the Pop-Up Metro option, praising its flexibility and ability to be customized to the community’s needs. 

Foster said while the Bus Rapid Transit option is interesting, it would be logistically difficult to pull off. The option features the highest capital cost price tag and may be redundant as the Corridor already has a similar method of transportation in the 380 Express Bus that runs from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids, she said.

North Liberty’s Mayor Chris Hoffman said he also likes the Pop-Up Metro option the best, highlighting its lower operating and capital costs. 

“Going the Pop-Up Metro route, financially, that’s a little lighter lift for all of us,” Hoffman said.

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The Pop-Up Metro would also be the “smoothest entry point” into the world of train transportation because of its live study element, Hoffman said.

Whichever option is chosen, the county would not be likely to play a major role in the operation, Rod Sullivan, chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, said. While the county will be supportive, it would not be in charge of running the system, he said.

Sullivan said he leans more towards the Bus Rapid Transit route because the community has lots of collective experience with operating buses and no experience with passenger trains. However, he said he does not feel strongly one way or the other and can see both sides.

Other supervisors appear to lean more in support of the Pop-Up Metro. At the board’s Dec. 4 work session, Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green discussed putting out a resolution declaring which option the county would like to see happen. 

The draft resolution stated that Pop-Up Metro would be the county’s preferred option. The resolution also asks that each city and the University of Iowa state its preferred option by Feb. 28, 2025.

The resolution would be non-binding and would just act as a show of support from the county to keep momentum going with this topic, Green said.

What are the next steps?

At the Nov. 19 Iowa City City Council meeting, Ralston said the next steps include choosing which option to proceed with, identifying funding sources, and establishing a regional transit entity.

No matter the option, it’s not feasible for one entity to take on the project themselves, especially with the passenger rail options, since the community does not have experience with trains, Ralston said. This means there needs to be some sort of county-wide transit authority to help operate the system, he said.

Finding funding for any project is a source of concern for some elected officials. Foster said Coralville already has existing issues funding its own public transit, which is currently supplemented with federal pandemic relief funds that are set to run out soon.

Cities are also increasingly limited in their ability to raise revenue in light of state legislation cutting back on property tax revenue, a major source of income for cities, Bergus said.

Even with these concerns in mind, elected officials all expressed their excitement about moving forward with this topic and bettering transportation for the community.

“Whether you’re running for office or not, this is something that’s going to be a big deal in your community,” Hoffman said. “And you may not ever use it, but you’re going to interact with it, or you might be directly affected, so there’s a broad spectrum of folks that’ll have some interaction with this.”